Xander cleared his throat. “Look, all of you idiots threw me a surprise party, which you know I hate…which means you already know some of what’s going on.”
“Eh, we heard it too,” Carter said, wrinkling his nose. “Which, you guys do you…or each other I guess, but like…I didn’t need to hear that.”
“Your fault,” Xander grunted. “Point is, you know what’s up. If anyone’s got a problem, then?—”
“Oh, Jesus,” Reno said with a roll of his eyes and walked in. “I came for more coffee.”
“Bacon,” Jake announced as he went toward the plate.
“I thought it was going to be important,” I heard Trevor mutter as he went to the table, an apple in his hand.
“Seriously,” Carter said with a shake of his head as he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. “Like we give a shit that you guys are…is it just fucking? Are you going to be fucking openly now?”
“Yes,” I said, deadpan. “Right here, on the counter.”
“I think they’re going to make a go of like…being a thing,” Reno said as he poured himself a cup. “Jake, hand me the bread.”
“Sure,” Jake said, tossing it to him. “So, does Doc get, like, special privileges?”
“Probably just gets to sleep in that comfy bed Big Boss has,” Carter said as drank his beer. “Since, ya know, they don’t haveto sneak around anymore. Really can’t believe they thought they had to. I mean, we’ve got like, what…two gay guys here? Oh wait, three, forgot about your brother’s ex drama.”
“God, don’t,” Reno groaned. “I try to ignore them.”
“They’re doing a real bad job of ignoring each other,” Carter said with a shake of his head.
“For real,” Jake agreed. “But are there, like, other privileges? Also, like, who’s doing who here?”
“You’re idiots,” I heard myself say, and then laughed when everyone, including Trevor, looked at me in surprise. “Well, you are.”
“Fucking idiots,” Xander agreed after a minute.
“You’re the only two fucking around here,” Reno said, and while I couldn’t see Xander’s face, I watched Reno slowly draw back. “Oh sure, I get to witness you two practically doing it on the counter, but I’m the bad guy…shutting up.”
“Good,” Xander rumbled, and God save me, that really did make me all fluttery.
Jake snapped his fingers. “That’s what it is! Doc has Scary Dog privilege!”
“The fuck does that mean?” Xander asked, but no amount of rage or fury from him was going to break Jake’s spirit; he had to know that.
“I’ll explain it later,” I told him, taking him by the arm. “C’mon.”
“Where are we going? I have?—”
“A nap to take, we both slept like shit and we could use a nap.”
“Nap,” I heard Trevor snort, and the rest of them started snickering.
“And raw gay sex!” I called back into the room.
The music in Cait’s office cut off. “Thank you so much for that imagery.”
“Sorry, Cait, I’ll get you a beer and a sandwich later to make up for it,” I said, rapping my knuckles on the door.
We stepped outside, and I looked at him. “You okay?”
He stopped and looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath and smiled at me. “Yeah…I think I am. Feels like everything I was worrying about was stupid and pointless. You were right there, going through my bullshit.”
“Mmm, so far worth it.”